Goal of the CDC:Making understandable the complexity of present-day
Christianity by clarifying the contextual character of Christian theological
views, practices and movements through history and cultures.

RATIONALE AND TEMPLATE for ENTRIES # 8,EVENT

SIGNIFICANT EVENTS AND RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCES

8/1/2003

Topic: An event or experience viewed as particularly significant for
the religious life and the theological views of Christians in particular times
and settings.

Audience:It is to be written for ¡°curious and bright undergraduate students¡± (beginning
university students whom we nicknamed ¡°curious Georgia¡±) and yet must be
informative enough to be a solid quick reference article for Christian clergy,
professors and students in Christian seminaries and religious studies
departments throughout the world.These readers might not know anything about Christianity– your
self-contained entry should give them sufficient information to give them the
assurance they know the essential about your topic – yet they will have access
to the rest of the dictionary for surveys of the history of Christianity in the
world and in each region, as well as for explanations of concepts, Christian
practices, events, history of Christian movements and denominations, and
entries on women and men who are representatives of all of these..

Type of Entry
and Goal:Avery concise presentation
that is quite informative because it clarifies the sense in which each
of these events and religious experiences is perceived as particularly
significant for Christians in a particular context.This presentation is designed to promote a cross-cultural
and cross-historical comparison of other events and religious experiences for
Christians in other contexts.

The CDC is committed to ¡°self representation,¡± allowing contributors to
emphasize the features of Christianity that are most significant in their own
tradition.Yet, these entries need
to remain descriptive.In other
words, the contributors are asked to avoid apologetic statements and absolute
claims (non-falsifiable statements), for instance by making explicit that ¡°X (a
particular group a person) believes that¡¦¡± or ¡°X reports that¡¦.¡±

The following
classifications are to be
used to facilitate the cross-cultural comparison of Christianity in diverse
contexts:(The order may vary; categories may be re-grouped, but all
must be considered in preparing an entry.A fair representation of significant event must account for its
significance for women,at least
50% of Christians.)

Historical context of this event or
experience;

Description of the main features of
this event or experience;

Sense in which this event is viewed as
related to a (positive or negative) religious experience;

The ways in which this event or
experience changes the understanding of certain Christian beliefs or of
certain Christian practices, and affects women and men in Christian
communities;

List of other entries to which this
entry refers and to which it needs to be cross-referenced (When writing an
entry, it is important to be aware of these other entries so as to avoid
repeating what will be found in them;if possible please consult the ¡°Overall List of
Entries¡± at http://www.vanderbilt.edu/AnS/religious_studies/CDC/.)

TEMPLATE for ENTRIES # 8,EVENT

(To insure consistency for the CDC, please include the
following [[PhrasesBetween
Brackets]] in your draft B
tobe subsequently removed by the
editor. The order of the points is to be determined in each case by the
author.)

[[Introduction]]
General description of the
event; and its main features.When
did it take place?Who were the
women and men involved?How were
women and men affected by it?What
kind ofevent is it?

[[Religious
Character of this Event]]What are the different understandings of
the significance of this event?Is
it viewed as a manifestation of the presence of God?Of the absence of God?As a manifestation of evil?By whom?What are the
conflicting views of this event by different groups?

[[ Historical
Context]] of this event or experienceDescribe pertinent
aspects of this historical context(religious dimension, cultural, social, economic, political, gender)
that were the background of this event/experience and that this
event/experience affected.

[[Effects]]How Does This Event Change the Understanding of
Certain Christian Beliefs?Of
Certain Christian Practices?How
does it affect women and men who are members of Christian communities?

[[Related
Entries]] presupposed:These should be signaled in the body of
the entry with an *after the word
designating the entry.A few
essential cross references may be listed at the end of the entry between
parentheses:¡°(see also
xxxxx).¡±

Short
Bibliography (not included in the word-count):List
the main resources for further studies of this topic to be included in theBibliography
of the Cambridge Dictionary of Christianity on a web-site that will be
regularly up-dated.Usually not
more than 5 to 10 titles with full biographical data (see style sheetat http://www.vanderbilt.edu/AnS/religious_studies/CDC/).